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Just Cause 3 could herald the end of PC game piracy

The founder of a Chinese hacking group notorious for breaking copyright protection software on PC games has all but admitted defeat, saying that "in two years' time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world".

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The quote comes from the pseudonymous "Bird Sister", who heads up the 3DM piracy collective. And it's one game in particular that's driven the group to despair -- Square Enix's recent Just Cause 3, and the extra layers of protection that the PC version enjoys.

Writing on her blog (as translated by TorrentFreak), Bird Sister says "Recently, many people have asked about cracks for Just Cause 3, so here is a centralised answer to this question. The last stage is too difficult and Jun [the person chiefly trying to crack it] nearly gave up, but last Wednesday I encouraged him to continue." "I still believe that this game can be compromised," she continues. "But according to current trends in the development of encryption technology, in two years time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world."

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Of course, "free" in this instance refers to pirated games, not free-to-play software -- that isn't going anywhere.

The chief reason 3DM has had so much trouble with Just Cause 3 has been its use of Denuvo, a form of anti-tamper technology. Unlike conventional DRM, which aims to protect the content itself, Denuvo protects the protection, aiming to "prevent the debugging, reverse engineering and changing of executable files to strengthen the security of games." It's kind of like having a moat to cross before an attacker can even start chipping away at the castle walls.

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While previous games using the anti-tamper tech have been cracked -- Lords of the Fallen, FIFA 15, and Dragon Age: Inquisition amongst them -- it appears to take longer each time. FIFA 16, for instance, released in September 2015, still hasn't made its way onto illicit channels. Compared with the ease of acquiring pirated PC games in years past, the era of zero-day cracks seems to be over.

Of course, two years in tech and software development may as well be two centuries, and a canny coder on the opposite side of the fence could turn the tables once again. For now though, Just Cause 3's relative impenetrability is definitely good news for creators and publishers.